SINGAPORE 60's: ANDY'S POP MUSIC INFLUENCE: ON THE MUSIC N MEMORY TRAIL IS MY OWN BLOG N ROLL PROJECT. NOSTALGIA IS PERSONAL HISTORY N PICTURES TELL STORIES. (I DO NOT OWN THE RIGHTS TO YOU-TUBE VIDEOS, AUDIO TRACKS OR IMAGES. THEY ARE UPLOADED FOR EDUCATIONAL AND ILLUSTRATIVE PURPOSES ONLY. MOST ARTICLES AND SOME IMAGES ARE ORIGINAL, COPYRIGHTED AND LABELLED SUCH. KNOWLEDGE IS FREE. COPYRIGHTS ARE NOT. ANDY YOUNG. November, 2008).

Monday, July 17, 2017

Singapore 70's Brief Music History (2): Michael Bangar

Today is 17.7.17. Here's a special posting from Michael Bangar. I would like to thank him again for writing this series. He's just as good with his essays as he is on his guitar. Thank you, Mike:While the music revival was going on in the UK, far far away on this little sunny island we call Singapore; brewing in this huge melting pot was our early 60's, bands. Getting active were The Quests, The Silver Strings, The Trailers, The Dukes, The Checkmates, The Thunderbirds, Mike and The Mysterians, Sunny Bala and The Moonglows (of which I was in the lineup in Sunny B's last phase of the band, before his passing.) In actuality, there were many other active bands to name.Along with these bands came other artistes too. The Van Dort brothers Mike and Herb, The Choy Brothers James and Siva, Keith Locke, Wilson David, Paul (Winston) Cheong, Vernon Cornelius, Winston Walters, Brian Neal, Bobby Lambert, Stevie Lorraine, Sakura Teng, Rita Chao and the list go on.

As a school boy, I used to watch all these stars perform at as many of their shows as I could afford at that age. It meant saving as much of my school cake money to buy the tickets. Concerts were held at the old National Theatre, Victoria Memorial Hall, the Singapore Badminton Hall and even in some school halls.

"Bobby Lambert and the Dukes, featuring Ahmad Murad Bin Sulaiman, Zainal Abidin Bin Sulaiman, Richard Young and Zainal Abidin Bin Akib. Their first record release included titles like First Bend In The River, Rave On, False Alarmand Day Dream, the last two being instrumentals."

For me, these concerts had much influence on my life as a musician. I used to go to watch these shows with eager anticipation and excitement all inside me. I thoroughly enjoyed them.Then in the late 60's and early 70's, mainly in the UK, there emerged a Blues boom that evolved into Rock (heavy metal music as some would call it). The Jimi Hendrix Experience and a bit later, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple surfaced on the scene.

Over in Singapore the same genre bands took roots: Fried Ice (with Ray Anthony - Singapore's answer to Jimi Hendrix), The Straydogs (with twin axemen L.T. Soon and Jimmy Appadurai), Barb Wire with Chris Vardam, Pest Infested with Alam Shah and Vocalist Ernie Koh and Sweet Charity (who later moved on and pioneered Malay Rock in the Malay Music Market. Black Dog Bone followed). The other more renowned bands that need mentioning are The Surfers who later became October Cherries (image below: Richard Khan - drummer), The Western Union Band and The X'periment with Joe Chandran (now known as Joseph Aron) as lead vocalist. Then there was Singapore's premier rock band with the three Jansen Brothers: Heritage. All the bands mentioned bands leant more towards the pop music of the day.

While all this was going on in the UK, in the US another genre of pop music was being created: Jazz Rock which was the merging of Jazz and Pop Rock when brass instruments were added.There were groups with unlikely names like Blood Sweat And Tears, which actually started this genre. Then there was Chicago Transit Authority (they later shortened their name to Chicago), followed by Chase (with Bill Chase as the band leader but this band perished in an aeroplane crash.

October Cherries: World Hits 1972 Video from sholimz

Local bands paralleled the trend with The Flybaits (above), Tony Castillo and the Castillians, The X'quisites, The Breed (of which I was with for a short while) and others, too many to name. All these bands worked in most nightclubs in Singapore and abroad.Later, other bands like Gingerbread and Tokyo Square reared their musical heads in the 1970's. For a while, there was even a jazz outfit called the AJL Trio consisting of star players like Albert Ventura, Jayram Shotam and Louis Soliano Tan (image below). They later added saxophone man Stephen Rufus to their line-up.

Michael Bangar with Rickie Chng, Laurence Lim and Andy Young @ Raffles City in 2017.During the same period in the late 70's, another jazz trio got together to form JERAMZEE, consisting of Jeremy Monteiro on the keyboard, Ramli Shariff on bass and Tony Zee (former Trailers) on drums (who later moved on to form Jive Talking with its long residency at The Hard Rock Cafe in Orchard Road. This band is still playing there but most of its original members have left the lineup.Read Part 1 from here: https://singapore60smusic.blogspot.sg/2017/04/spore-60s-brief-pop-music-history-mike.htmlThe article is Copyrights Reserved (Michael Bangar).Images: A Private Collection and Google.

12 comments:

Irene Yap
said...

Thanks Mike for the nice write up. Reading them brings back refreshing memories of our music scene back than. You have remarkable memories and write well.And to know you were with Sonny Bala and the moonglows. I was with them at Ion Bar/Apollo Hotel too way back.

I know Joe Chandran, Mervin Nonis, Chris Vadham from Western Union Band; the entire GINGERBREAD band was from my class at St. Gabriel's.

Sonny Bala's sister married my grand uncle. Thank god we enjoyed the 60's and 70's. Life took a change after the 80's onwards.

All those that I knew came from Jalan Kayu and Seletar Hills.

Actually years ago I had met Mike Bangar through my friend Evans Barnabas at the Ladyhill Hotel. Evans was a singer and lead guitarist from another band. Most of my friends like them because those days all with talent shared a common ground and we knew how to take a break and unwind.

CURRENT POST: STRIP CLUB VISIT, 3 HITS FROM 1984

The only strip queen I heard or read about in Singapore was locally famous Rose Chan (last image below) who was a hit in the 1960's. But I had never even seen her live on stage. And the only strip joint I had ever visited in my life was during the first year of my studies abroad.

NOVENA CHURCH OPENS: 29 SEPTEMBER 2017. NOVENA VINYL RECORDED: 1960's

On Sept 29, Novena Church re-opens its doors for a new beginning. But in the 60's it did a recording of spiritual songs. Glad that I found a vinyl copy of the youth group recording entitled, Sing-A-Long With The Primitives. It is the only one by this choir if I am right; and it is a rare recording on the small Extended Play (EP). There is a second record to complement this one. And one Mr Francis Oei sent the images to me via Facebook today (16 September 2017). Check them out. CLICK PICTURE TO READ.

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SARAWAK GIRLS RUSH INTO HOTEL ROOM FOR BAND BOYS' AUTOGRAPHS

Check out the story when Mike and Herb, Silver Strings, The Jets were swarmed by fans. CLICK PICTURE FOR STORY

ELVIS TRIBUTE ARTISTE SINGHS WELL

Which is your favourite song, I asked him: "Amal Shook Up." CLICK PIX FOR OTHER JOKES

ROBBIE WILLIAMS

His Singapore appearance at FORMULA 1 RACE IN SEPTEMBER

BLUE DIAMONDS: RIEM DE WOLFF PASSED ON

MICHAEL BANGAR pays tribute: One of the best vocal duos internationally, from Indonesia and Holland, Riem carried on after his brother Ruud died. Now he is gone too. CLICK PIX TO READ

A NOTE FROM JOHN CHER. SHARED ON FACEBOOK BY ROSE KHOO

JOHN CHER'S NOTE ON THE BLOG'S COMMENT PAGE: Hi Andy, It is an achievement to be able to sustain the interest of even 2000 people a month on a regular basis on any given topic. What you have done could not be the result of a faint heart or a lame endeavour. It takes passion and consistency to incessantly create stories that your international readership can relate to and is stimulating enough to make them keep coming back to your blog for more. Your enthusiasm for your work makes the difference! Without it, there would be no zest! Like Coke without the bubbles! Flat! On behalf of all your readers, I wish to appeal to you to not even consider stopping your very fine work but to keep up with your enthusiasm for your unique blog. I am still hopeful that one day soon, the relevant authority in SG would officially recognize your work! It is strange but nonetheless true, no prophet will find acceptance in his own country! A case in point, recently the Australians conferred an award on Matthew Tan for his contributions to Country Music. I am of the view that it is SG that should have taken the initiative for such an award! Of course not only for Matthew but for other iconic local musicians as well, like Henry Chua and others! Be that as it may, here's wishing you continued success in all your efforts to preserve our music heritage! God bless! John Cher CLICK PIX TO READ OTHER LETTERS.

MOON SONGS, MOON CAKES

The moon symbol is obvious for many songs, festivities, etc. Check out the practice of THE MOON CAKE FESTIVAL IN SINGAPORE. CLICK PIX

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TV HOST ANITA KAPOOR AND LIM CHEN SIAN INTERVIEW ANDY

The Treasure Hunt Series on Channel 5 had TRAILERS PHOENIX THEME highlighted. CHECK IT OUT BY CLICKING PIX.

DON'T MISS

COMING SOON! CLICK PIX TO READ PREVIEW

RUDY MOSBERGEN: JAPANESE OCCUPATION IN SINGAPORE

A good book to check out about Singapore's period in history when it became Syonan-to. A few music stories too. CLICK PIX TO READ.

PEGGY TAN SINGAPORE 60'S DIVA PART 2

Here's PART 2 of the story of the year about Singapore night club diva PEGGY TANN. Trained in classical music, she became the doyen of Singapore night-clubbers in the 60's and beyond. Californian writer HENRI GANN traces her life history. CLICK PIX TO READ

THE ROCK N ROLL TRAIN WITH HORACE WEE

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